Becoming & Being

Probably one of the greatest spiritual masters that India has produced in the recent times was Acharya Rajneesh, popularly known as Osho. He was one of the most controversial too. The amount of knowledge Acharya Rajneesh poured into his discourses was immense. He never wrote any books. He gave discourses and lectures to the live audience, answering their questions impromptu. They were all recorded in almost 300+ books. Acharya Rajneesh was born as Chandra Mohan Jain in 1931 and merged into the Infinite in 1990, at the age of 59. 

One of the earlier discourses he gave were on esoteric areas such as Meditation (on which he spoke extensively later on too), Kundalini, Dreams, Seven bodies & Being. The discourses were collected into – “The Psychology of the Esoteric”. As with other Osho books, this will also make you think. 

Some of the excerpts from the book:

1. One must become aware of the fact that sunrise as such is not a word; it is a fact, a presence, a situation. The mind automatically changes it into a word. These words are accumulated. They go on being accumulated & between existence, the existential and consciousness, these piled up words – these piled up memories, linguistic memories – these are obstacles towards meditative growth. (20)
2. Good & bad are not opposites; they exist together. Man has the possibility to be either, so whatever you are looking for in him, you will be able to find…When you judge him, it depends more on your definition than on the situation itself. It depends on how you look at this or that. (96)
3. Playing with words is so ego-fulfilling that you can waste your life doing it. (97)
4. The original source of all tension is becoming. One is always trying to be something; no one is at ease with himself as he is. The being is not accepted, the being is denied, and something else is taken as an ideal to become. (168)
5. So one has to be aware all the time not to make the ultimate into a desired whim; not to make it a wish, an object; not to make it something somewhere far off, to be achieved and to be travelled to. It is just here and now. (213)

The book has 12 chapters in just less than 300 pages. Acharya Rajneesh’s discourses could be really long. He used to elaborate on topics a lot. He will intrigue you, push you beyond limits and make you ponder. Be ready to have your mind blown.